Description of the Prior Art
The invention concerns a connecting clamp for electrical conductors such as are known from the DE-PS No. 27 06 482 of the applicant. Connecting clamps of this type have an insulating housing and a clamping spring that is formed of an elastic flat material. The clamping spring has two legs which terminate in ends, which are bent towards one another in such a fashion that the end of one leg extends through a recess in the end of the other leg. Here an electrical conductor extends underneath the end of the leg that extends through the recess and is conducted through the recess. This conductor is pulled from the lower edge of the recess in the direction of that end of the leg of the clamping spring which extends through the recess.
The known connecting clamps of this type are built with an intrinsically rigid current bar. Together with the electrical conductor, this current bar extends through the recess of one leg end of the clamping spring. Here, the contact point for the electrical conductor is formed between the lower edge of the recess and the current bar. One or also several electrical conductors can be clamped at each contact point. However, such a bundled clamping e.g. of two conductors is disadvantageous since all the conductors are loosened simultaneously when the contact point is opened. Consequently, one tries to provide a separate contact point for each conductor when using connecting clamps for electrical conductors. With the clamp according to the DE-PS No. 27 06 482, this can be achieved only by a corresponding number of clamping springs. Thus the design of such a clamp to connect two or more conductors is relatively expensive.
The DE-AS No. 11 05 937 discloses a connecting clamp for two conductors which makes do with only one clamping spring. However, when assembling the clamp, the second device-side conductor must here be fastened by means of a fastening claw at one leg end of the clamping spring. This is unsuitable for the mass production of such clamps. Furthermore, this clamp provides that, for connecting the device-side conductor, there is a break in the force loop of the clamping spring which weakens the spring force of the clamp.
This disadvantage also exists with the connecting clamp for two conductors according to the DE-GM No. 83 01 933. Here too, there is a break in the force loop of the clamping spring, which is used to fix the clamping spring on the current bar at its correct position. Without such fixing, the clamping forces resulting from clamping the second electrical conductor would move the clamping spring away from the current bar. It is therefore necessary to fix the clamping spring at its correct position, and this considerably increases manufacturing and assembly costs, thus making this clamp essentially unsuitable for mass production.